Rattling The Bars

The nightmarish reality of the prison industrial complex depends on a vast array of stereotypes and tropes about incarcerated people that have proliferated through our culture. From the myth of the ‘superpredator’ to other racist and anti-poor constructions of the prisoner, the real stories and lives of the human beings trapped in the prison system are obscured by a veil of assumptions propagated...

Regarded by many as a form of torture, abolishing solitary confinement has become a goal for many activists for prison reform and abolition. In Washington, DC, the End Solitary Confinement 2023 bill would seek to end the practice in District facilities by requiring incarcerated people have access to at least eight hours a day outside their cells. Herbert Robinson, co-facilitator of the Unlock the...

Less than 15 percent of parole-eligible prisoners serving life sentences in Maryland have been released since 2015. With advocates across the state clamoring for parole reform , Maryland's legislature has the opportunity to address the state's soul-crushing parole system this legislative session. Al Brown and Tyrone Litte, who each served decades in Maryland's prison system, join Rattling the Bars...

The 13th Amendment of the US Constitution makes an exception to the abolition of slavery in order to permit the use of "involuntary servitude" as punishment for a crime. The modern system of mass incarceration depends on this exception to justify paying millions of incarcerated people subminimum wages that many advocates say is virtually indistinguishable from forms of slavery. Various US states a...

The holiday season is a time to be spent with loved ones—yet for the nearly 2 million people incarcerated in US jails and prisons at any given time, that's not a possibility. Rattling the Bars host Mansa Musa and TRNN Editor-In-Chief Maximillian Alvarez discuss how the holidays are experienced behind bars. Click here to watch Max's interview with Eddie Conway on being incarcerated during the holid...

Malik Rahim, a former Black Panther and long-time prison and housing activist, joins Rattling the Bars to discuss the conditions faced by prisoners at the notorious Louisiana State Penitentiary, more commonly known as "Angola." Rahim also delves into the necessity of environmental justice in the face of a future where climate collapse and fascism will come hand-in-hand. Studio: Cameron Granadino,...

Four Louisiana police officers in the city of Baton Rouge are facing charges in connection to the torture and sexual abuse of a detainee at a secret torture warehouse known as the 'Brave Cave.' Two lawsuits and the separate testimony of a third victim describe a pattern of abuse and torture perpetrated by the now-disbanded anti-street crime unit of the Baton Rouge police. Rev. Alexis Anderson of P...

Thomas "Tahaka" Gaither was out on parole when then-Gov. Glendening of Maryland revoked parole for all persons convicted of a life sentence. Since the late 1990s, Gaither has remained incarcerated—despite once having been deemed fit for release. His story is not unusual for those who've experienced Maryland's parole system. Since 2015, barely half of 523 parole-eligible prisoners serving life sent...

El Salvador's Nayib Bukele has now suspended the rule of law in his country for 18 months, during which time more than 70,000 people have been rounded up and imprisoned without trial in the naming of stopping crime. While Bukele's approval rating has skyrocketed, many families of the incarcerated paint a much grimmer picture of suspended civil liberties and indefinite detention. TRNN contributor M...

After two years of resistance against the proposed "Atlanta Public Safety Training Center," more commonly known as Cop City, more than 60 activists associated with the movement have been indicted on RICO charges. The push to build Cop City and the heavy-handed state response to local protests cannot be separated from the past decade of neoliberal crisis and anti-police protests rocking Atlanta and...

While the death penalty has been abolished in 23 states and Washington, DC, other states are doubling down on the barbaric practice of capital punishment. Idaho wants to bring back firing squads, and now the state of Alabama is pushing to become the first state to execute a death row inmate, Kenneth Smith, by forcing him to inhale pure nitrogen. Why are these states seeking such cruel execution me...

After 52 years of incarceration, Edward Alan Poindexter is among the longest serving political prisoners in US and world history. Originally part of the "Omaha Two," Poindexter and Mondo we Langa, both leaders of the Omaha Black Panthers, were convicted of the murder of Omaha police officer Larry Minard in 1971. Poindexter and we Langa's case has long been a subject of scrutiny, with Amnesty Inter...

Read the transcript of this podcast: https://therealnews.com/george-jacksons-unfinished-revolution At the age of 18, George Jackson was condemned to a prison sentence of one year to life for the alleged robbery of $70 from a Los Angeles gas station. Jackson spent the remainder of his short life behind bars, but it was from the confines of prison that he became one of the most powerful revolutionar...

Read the transcript of this podcast: https://therealnews.com/juvenile-sentencing-in-the-us-is-barbaric-racist-and-ineffective “The United States is the only country in the world that permits youth to be sentenced to life without parole,” the Juvenile Law Center notes. “Sentencing children to die in prison is condemned by international law . For children or adults, a sentence of life without parole...

The shocking arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment of Nebraska teen Celeste Burgess and her mother, Jessica Burgess, has now become one of the best-known cases of abortion criminalization in post-Roe America. But the Burgess case is just the tip of the iceberg. Since the 2022 Supreme Court Dobbs decision, abortion bans only make it easier to criminalize all pregnancy outcomes. Emma Roth of Pregnan...

The revelations of widespread torture of detainees at the illegal US naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba, rattled the American conscience during the Bush Jr. administration. Two decades later, detainments at Guantanamo continue, but the public has largely moved on. Yet for many former detainees of Guantanamo, release from their former prison has just opened a new chapter of horrors. A recent report fro...

Mass incarceration as we know it today owes much of its existence to the political rationale created by the War on Drugs. Although proffered as a solution to the public health crisis of drug addiction, prisons actually provide little in the way of real care or rehabilitation for people struggling with substance abuse. In Alaska, True North Recovery, an addiction treatment and advocacy organization...

Jessup, Maryland is home to the state's only women's prison, the Maryland Correctional Institute for Women, commonly known as "The Cut". For years, advocates fought for a women's pre-release center, which would house prisoners eligible to go out on work release, receive an income, and take family leave. Despite passing a bill into law mandating the construction of a women's pre-release center, the...

Former President Donald Trump is facing 34 felony counts in New York State and an additional 37 felony federal charges. None of this prevents him from freely campaigning for President and appearing before the media. Yet the reality for most people targeted by the criminal justice system is far different. Take Rikers Island Jail—where more than 80 percent of inmates have not been convicted of a cri...

The system of mass incarceration extends into the public education system. Known as the school-to-prison pipeline, policies that criminalize youth and their families, from the presence of police in schools to discriminatory and punitive practices that push youth to drop out, disproportionately affect communities of color. Kentucky State Rep. Keturah Herron joins Rattling the Bars to discuss the sc...

Juneteenth has become a federal holiday—yet prison slavery under the 13th Amendment continues. Uprooting the prison industrial complex is vital to completing the abolition of slavery. In California, the Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB) coalition aims to close 10 state prisons in the next 5 years as part of the People's Plan for Prison Closure. CURB Executive Director Amber-Rose...

On April 27, 2023, the United States Sentencing Commission submitted to Congress amendments to the federal sentencing guidelines that would recommend lower sentences for certain defendants. If these changes are applied retroactively, some 18,775 people in federal prison could become eligible for a sentencing reduction—including 3,288 individuals who could be eligible for immediate release. Mary Pr...

The topic of solitary confinement was the focus of a recent episode of John Oliver's Last Week Tonight on HBO. Thanks to the hard work of activists organizing against solitary confinement for decades, awareness of the brutality of this practice has begun to enter the mainstream. Its history as a counterinsurgency tactic, however, has yet to be fully examined in the light of day. TRNN Editor-in-Chi...

While the underlying logic of the cash bail system in the US may sound convincing on paper, in practice it has become a means of denying justice to, and destroying the lives of, people who have not even been convicted of a crime. “The US Constitution prohibits ‘excessive bail’” The Bail Project notes on their website. “Excessive bail forces people to stay in jail—even though they’ve not been convi...

*Editor's note: At 00:56, host Mansa Musa misspeaks when quoting a report and says that 55 million people are in the system of mass incarceration; the correct number is 5.5 million. Over 1.9 million people are incarcerated in the US today, and even greater 5.5 million people are subjected to the wide-ranging system of mass punishment from parole, probation, and beyond. One organization, JustLeader...